Hieracium albiflorum / white hawkweed

Adjectives: forest openings, interesting bits, LSRP, native, understory, white latex

Synonym: Pilosella albiflora
See also: Taraxacum officianale / dandelion

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White hawkweed is an herbaceous perennial that looks a lot like a white dandelion. Both are in the Chicory subfamily of Asteraceae. In this case, you’ll find it in shady openings in dry forests. The plants  have a single stem that’s quite hairy in the lower portion. The leaves, typically 5 or 6 mostly at the base, are up to 7″ long, toothed (but not like dandelions), and also very hairy. Like dandelions, the stems and leaves exude a white, milky sap when broken.

Unlike dandelion, hawkweed has as many as 50 flower heads per plant in a flat-topped cyme. Each cluster has 6-25 white petaled florets. Some sources say these are ray florets (with no disk florets). Others say they are ray-like disk florets (with no ray florets). The stamens and pistils are, however, concentrated in the center. Each of the petals has 4 little notches in its flat tip. 

The seeds of hawkweeds have the same kind of feathery pappus that dandelions have, but unlike them, and most hawkweeds, Hieracium spp. seeds are fertile and the plant’s only means of  reproduction.

Unlike most hawkweeds, dandelions and chicories, this species is actually a true native in North America.

Interesting bits – The classification of this genus into species is “notoriously” difficult, in part because asexual (apomictic) in many species tends to produce a lot of minor variation. Over 9000 species names have been published, many of which may just be synonyms.